the breakdown

24 Sep 2010 news 0 Comments

Now that the oracle has spoken (thanks, Doret!) I’m ready to analyze our data.  I should start by saying that I underestimated the publishing industry—sort of.  I didn’t think we’d hit 20 titles by black authors in the US and instead we topped 40!  Consider, however, that the ALA estimates about 3,000 YA titles are published each year,* which means we’re still less than 2% of the total.  Not surprisingly, most presses/imprints only put out ONE black-authored novel this year.  Here are the publishers that did a bit better: (ETA ~ these numbers may change as additional titles are added to our list)

Dafina ~ 11

Kimani ~ 7

Scholastic ~ 5

Delacorte ~ 3

Hyperion ~ 3

Bloomsbury ~ 2

Knopf ~ 2

Little Brown ~ 2

Simon Pulse ~ 2

Simon & Schuster ~ 2

Gallery ~ 2

I haven’t read any Dafina titles, but they’re basically responsible for publishing 20%  of the novels by black authors.  Earlier this evening a very wise librarian friend remarked that it was a shame ALA didn’t care more about this issue; raising awareness about banned books is extremely important, but it’s also important to acknowledge the silenced voices of writers of color who continue to be marginalized within the publishing world…

*my list is fiction only, and the ALA figure may include non-fiction titles.

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